Join local filmmakers as they share movie scenes so clever and thematically rich, so moving and profound, that they wish they'd written them. Panelists will share tricks of the trade and will join audience members in a discussion about the craft of screenwriting.

Doors open at 5:00 p.m., program will start promptly at 5:30 p.m. Cocktail reception to follow.
This event is free but RSVP is required, as seating is limited.
Entry is first-come, first-served.

Katherine Dieckmann 
Writer-director Katherine Dieckmann’s work includes Strange Weather (2016), Motherhood (2009), Diggers (2007), and A Good Baby (2000)—the latter of which was developed at Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters and Directors Labs. Dieckmann began her career as a journalist, writing on film, books, and music for such publications as Rolling Stone and The Village Voice before directing music videos for bands including R.E.M., Aimee Mann, and Wilco. Dieckmann was the originating director on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete, is an associate professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts Film Program, and has been a creative advisor for Sundance Institute's Screenwriters Lab and New Frontier Story Lab.

Michelle Parkerson
Writer, filmmaker, and educator Michelle Parkerson is from Washington, DC.  Her award-winning films include Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock,  A Litany For Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (co-directed with Ada Gay Griffin), and Storme: The Lady of the Jewel Box. Her documentaries have screened at festivals including Sundance, Berlin, and AFI, and her awards and grants include a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.  She is currently scripting Lifted, a 1920s action-adventure about the first Black woman pilot, Bessie Coleman. Michelle has served on the faculties of Northwestern, Howard, and Temple Universities.

Heidi Saman
Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces to Watch," Heidi Saman’s first feature film, Namour, won a Jury Award at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival. It was developed with Sundance Institute, was funded by the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant and Knight Foundation Grant, was acquired by Ava DuVernay’s distribution company, ARRAY, and is currently streaming on Netflix. In 2008, Saman’s short film The Maid (il Shaghala) premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Saman is a 2016–2018 Pew Fellow in the Arts and is currently a producer for NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

Lauren Wolkstein
Lauren Wolkstein is a NYC-based filmmaker from Baltimore, Maryland. Her award-winning short films include Social Butterfly , Cigarette Candy, and The Strange Ones, which she and co-director Christopher Radcliff adapted into their first feature film of the same name and premiered to critical acclaim at SXSW in 2017. Filmmaker Magazine listed Lauren as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2013, and she recently completed Collective:Unconscious, the first omnibus to premiere in the Narrative Feature Competition at SXSW in 2016. Lauren received her MFA in film directing from Columbia University and is an assistant professor of film and media arts at Temple University.

Michael J. Dennis
Michael J. Dennis (a.k.a. Mike D) holds a BFA in film production from NYU and an MFA in directing from AFI. In 1999, he founded Reelblack, which creates and promotes “good movies 'bout Black folks.” Mike’s credits include Who Is Chris Rock? (1989), Philly Boy: A Movie About M.C.Breeze (2002), Kindred The Family Soul (2006), and Ladies and Gentlemen, Jordan Rock (2011). He has directed and edited over 900 segments for Reelblack TV. A three-time grant recipient of Mind TV’s Philadelphia Stories, his work has screened on CNN, BET, WYBE-TV and Aspire TV. Awards include Film of the Year, Phillyhiphop.com for Philly Boy, and Best Documentary at the NC Black Film Festival.